Everything for Everyone

 

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi (2022) 256 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Charli Burrow and Soneela Nankani. The authors have written this as if they are the oral history interviewers. This is speculative fiction about the near future, but it is in the style of nonfiction. It feels a bit dry, but very real. With the current developments of late-stage capitalism the future presented here is very probable. Many of the people interviewed about their part in the growth of communes in New York city are people of color or queer. We hear from many people who understand activism, abolition, collectivism, and mutual aid as tools to survive the collapse of the old systems. If you are interested in dystopian fiction that is closely tied to reality like Octavia Butler's Parable books or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, you'll probably enjoy this. It has a hopeful message.

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

 Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea, 400 pages

This book started as a series of interviews between theater director Brendan O'Hea and actress Judi Dench, originally intended for a theater company's archives. O'Hea soon realized this work was something a whole lot of people would want to read, and decided to turn it into a book instead. However, especially in audiobook form, this book retains the feel of an intimate conversation between old friends. Although Dench read only small portions of the audiobook, the actress they got to read her part sounded so similar I couldn't always tell when they switched.

The book covers the dozens of Shakespeare roles Judi Dench has played in her decades-spanning career, as well as collecting a whole lot of general thoughts about performing Shakespeare and working in theater. I was very impressed how the book managed to twist together biography, funny anecdotes, and very solid Shakespeare analysis into something that felt so cohesive. Judi Dench is riotously funny, and it was a pleasure to feel as if you were in her living room listening to her chat with an old friend. I would strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, performing live theater, or Judi Dench. 

Rage

 

Rage by Bob Woodward (2020) 452 pages

Bob Woodward's latest book delves deeply into Donald Trump's administration and Cabinet. He gained his information via seventeen on-the-record interviews with Trump, and extensive interviews with those around Trump. I learned much more about those who worked in Trump's administration, like Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Dan Coats, and Jared Kushner. We learn much about Trump's relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jon Un. 

The book starts its journey at the time Trump was choosing his Cabinet, in November 2016, and leaves off in late July 2020, as the coronavirus still raged. The book is well-documented, with extensive footnoting and index. Most fascinating to me, in a kind of "craning to see the accident at the side of the road" way, were the texts of the discussions between Woodward and Trump. 

The Power of Myth

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers  320 pp.

Every few years (or several this time around) I pick up this book and reread it. I first learned about Joseph Campbell by watching the PBS series with Bill Moyers when it was broadcast back in 1988 and I came to love his work. This book is the transcript of the series with added material that was edited from the shows. Campbell, a professor, storyteller, mythologist, and philosopher explains the connections between the mythologies of the major religions and contemporary culture. Campbell's work uses the idea of the monomyth (all mythic stories are variations of one great story), the hero's journey (explained further in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces), and Jungian psychology. He is also standard bearer for the idea of following your bliss which is mentioned frequently in the book. At the time of his death Campbell was working on his Historical Atlas of World Mythology. That series remains unfinished and is out of print. I had copies of the volumes that were published but they were irreparably water damaged in my leaky basement. 😢

Absolutely on Music

Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami  325 pp.

I'm going to start this off with a warning: This is not a book for your "average" Murakami reader or even the casual lover of classical music. I would not recommend it unless you are very well versed in classical music, music conductors, and recordings of classical music. I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about classical music but the transcripts of the Murakami-Ozawa interviews frequently left me lost. I am a fan of Maestro Ozawa and have always enjoyed various television performances he conducted. He was an oddity in the music world being the only Asian conductor working in the west studying with Herbert von Karajan and later picked by Leonard Bernstein to be Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic even though he spoke little English at the time. Ozawa is one of those hard-working non-stop people who at the age of 81 is still at it even after taking a little time off for a bought of esophageal cancer. What was surprising to me is Murakami's extensive knowledge of the genre including the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in recordings of major works conducted by various of the world's greatest conductors. (The list of recordings is so extensive they were not listed in the book but are available on Murakami's website.) But it is clear that Murakami's questions for the Maestro were sincere and in the interest of gaining further knowledge. This is an excellent book for a very select audience.

Dinner with Lenny

Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein by Jonathan Cott  183 pp.

I have been a fan of Leonard Bernstein since childhood...remember the "Young People's Concerts" on television? I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In November of 1989 Jonathan Cott was sent by Rolling Stone Magazine to do an interview with the master conductor, composer, and political activist. He met Bernstein in his home for dinner and to answer Cott's well-prepared questions. The visit stretched to a twelve hour conversation that covered many topics but mostly music, music, and more music. Cott then had to condense his cassette recorded material into an 8000 word article. Bernstein continued to conduct concerts all over the world during that last year of his life while secretly being treated for lung cancer. He collapsed in August 1990 while conducting the third movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony at Tanglewood, fifty years after his career began there. On October 9, 1990 he announced his retirement and died a few days later. I liked this book so much I ordered a copy for myself so I can highlight all the wonderful things he said.

Memories of the Great and Good

Memories of the Great and Good by Alistair Cooke   296 pp.

This is a collection of articles written by Cooke profiling 23 men and women who were prominent in their field of endeavor. Some were taken from interviews, while others were obituary articles. Included are politicians, actors, generals, scientists, authors, and others who gained fame in one way or the other. Cooke considered all to be remarkable in their own way. Cooke reveals his wonder at the media silence about FDR's disability, commends LBJ's backroom acumen, has a chatty interview with the retired President Eisenhower, and is a little too complimentary of then California governor, Ronald Reagan. Cooke's writings about Erma Bombeck, actor Gary Cooper, and journalist, James Reston are heartfelt and complimentary. He is wholly sympathetic to P.G. Wodehouse's unfortunate duping by the Nazis. But he saves his greatest accolades for golfer Bobby Jones and Winston Churchill. This is an engaging book, ideal to read in short sittings.

Secondhand Time: the Last of the Soviets, an Oral History / SvetlanaAlexievich, translated by Bela Shayevich, 470 pp.

I struggle to begin a post about a book so unusual, eye-opening, moving, enlightening and even entertaining that I know I won't do it justice. Alexievich has spent decades recording lengthy conversations of ordinary former Soviets: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Tajiks, and Armenians, among others. Through the voices of a huge array of people representing all walks of the post-Soviet experience, the reader is taken inside the fall of Communism in a new way. The west experienced the collapse of the USSR with almost unalloyed jubilation; the picture looks different from the point of view of many ordinary Russians for whom the Revolution has ranged from disappointing to terrifying. I especially appreciated the thoughts of those who seemed to have had real love for the Soviet ideal. These speakers will concede the excesses of Stalinism but affirm that the notion of working for society as a whole rather than oneself alone had meaning for them, and that they are unmoored by the excesses, vulgarity, violence, and indifference of the capitalist 'freedom' they now enjoy.

Alexievich's technique is amazing. She allows her subjects to speak without filter and without seeming to insert herself into the process. The beauty lies in the choice and juxtaposition of subjects, and what I assume must be an amazing sympathetic quality, so intense is the material she's drawn from these people.

Sick in the head

Sick in the head: conversations about life and comedy / Judd Apatow 497 pgs.

Judd Apatow parlayed his high school radio show into opportunities to talk to big time comedians.  He was a total comedy nerd and worked his way to comedy master.  These interviews, some of which date back to the early 80's, reveal a LOT about Apatow and much about the subjects too.  There are really a lot of great interviews here if you are a person who cares at all about comedy.

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Days That I'll Remember

Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono by Jonathan Cott  240 pp.

Jonathan Cott interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono for the first time in 1968 when Cott was the first European editor for a fledgling magazine called Rolling Stone. It was the beginning of a lifetime friendship. His last interview with Lennon was just three days before his death. His most recent interview with Ono was in 2012 shortly before her eightieth birthday (OMG, she's 80!). In addition to his reminiscences about their meetings and what was going on socially and musically at the time, Cott includes the full transcripts of his recorded interviews. The interviews were published in part in Rolling Stone and other periodicals but reading them in their entirety is fascinating (at least to a John Lennon fan). Lennon talks candidly about his life, fame, The Beatles, his relationship and work with Yoko, the "bed-ins" for peace, and other performers/songs that influenced his music. Two haunting parts of the 1980 interview stood out for me. In one part, when talking about future plans Lennon said, "But there's time, right? Plenty of time." followed by "it will be fun to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, It will be fun, won't it, to start 1981 like 1968?" And when talking about the critics he said, "What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interested in being a dead f***ing hero...." Three days later, December 8, 1980, he became one. Those who aren't fans may not care about this book but I just might have to buy a copy for my personal library.